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A GOOD EASY READ.

I finished this book just this morning & my thoughts...yea, not bad. The story didn't hook me like some books but I did feel the urge to keep reading & find out what happened in the end.

The plot: We have Stevie (the bride-to-be) looking to settle down with Jez, she's wondering if she's making a mistake in marrying him but after a chat with her best friend Lara puts it down to last minute nerves and not the fact that she's in love with her friend of many years, Sam...!

The wedding goes ahead & off they go on their honeymoon. Jez has picked the location thinking he knows Stevie well when in fact he picks the total opposite to where she'd really like to go!

Stevie & Jez bump into Katy, an old 'friend' of Stevies, (the reason Stevie & Sam didn't get together years before Jez came on the scene) and her boyfriend Seb - their relationship is a little mixed up due to wanting different things and honestly, not each other.

During the honeymoon Stevie, Jez, Katy & Seb spend the day together, Jez drools over Katy from the moment they meet and conversation turns to 'swinging' - Stevie isn't amused & wants to go back to their villa but Jez doesn't so she storms off in a huff.

A few days later the relationship between Stevie & Jez is still a little strained (with Stevie noticing a lot of annoying things about Jez she didn't realise existed before!) Stevie speaks to her mum & finds out Polly (Stevies younger sister) has had her baby early & he's very poorly so Stevie rushes home leaving Jez to finish the honeymoon with Katy and Seb for company.

To add to Stevies already unhappy marriage & her sisters poorly son, she notices her parents are have marriage troubles, thinks she may be pregnant & Jez' mum is hanging around like a bad smell you can't get rid of.

Honeymoon & holiday over ,everyone goes back to normal everyday life - Katys feeling low & decides to take an overdose calling Jez for help. Only later do they realise the label on the bottle says 'St Johns Wort' D'oh!

Stevie needs to get away from Jez for a few days so goes to stay with Lara & her sperm-hunting flatmate Casey in New York - while Stevies away Jez sees quite a bit of Katy.

Lara has an interview in LA during Stevie stay so Stevie is left in the company of Sam (who also happens to live in New York) for the day, he almost tells Stevie how he feels about her till she lets slip she thinks she might be pregnant.

Stevie & Sam travel back to London together; they laugh & talk for ages on the aeroplane till Sam falls asleep & Stevies left wondering what could have been. During this time she gets her period & confirmation she's not pregnant after-all - is she relieved or disappointed?

Stevie gets home; baby Tommy takes a turn for the worse & Jez confesses to Stevie he's fallen for Katy so they split up realising they should never have got married.

After a heart to heart with Poppy, Stevie comes to term with being in love with Sam but couldn't possibly do anything about it because as far as she's aware her best friend, Lara & the guy she loves, Sam are dating.

Sam tells Stevie how he feels while Stevie receives a message from Lara stating she's pregnant which turns Stevie white as a ghost as of course she thinks Sam's the father therefore tells Sam nothing can ever happen between them.

It turns out Seb is the father of Lara's baby (Stevie introduced Lara & Seb when Seb said he didn't know many people in New York..) of course now Stevie can be with Sam so she turns up on his doorstep unannounced & tells him how she really feels about him. (Awwww!) & Jez & Katy realise they're meant to be together.

Plenty of swapping and changing but everyone ended up happy! :)

This is the first Polly Williams book I've read and I think I'll be looking out for more by the same author. Give this book a chance & see what you think! :)

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See review.

Stevie Johnson has everything that she thinks she wants. She has a fabulous career with a magazine, a man that has actually proposed to her...willingly, and the chance that she has been waiting for, the chance to have children.

A few weeks before her wedding however, she comes to the conclusion that maybe her life is not as great as she first thought, the idea that maybe her age and ever ticking biological clock has more to do with her husband choice than love, causing her to wobble...emotionally!

Will Stevie actually bite the bullet and marry her prince charming, or will she see him for the frog that he really is......

Firstly I am sorry that I have not been able to give you more of the story but the best way for me describe this book is..."Sex and the city".This is an adaptation of the afore mentioned programme, with the story even being split in equal measures between England and New York

As a fan of S&TC I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters are funny and diverse, from the completely anal Stevie who is genuinely under the impression she is laid back, her completely mental mother who is a 60's throwback with the josh sticks in one hand and bag in the other, ready for the moment "the kids" finally leave home, and she can finally visit her destination of choice, this being Marrakech.The slightly more background characters, in particular Katy is quite a poignant character to read about, for as funny as she has been written, the typical "perfect woman", never with a hair out of place, fantastic career and taste in...well, everything, there is always the underlying sadness due to the fact she has put her career in front of a family, and now she feels like she has to race towards starting a family, even if it is with Mr right now!

The story is varied and in no way unbelievable, at times the way Stevie describes her feelings towards her partner, and her fears for the future and marriage ring so true, you really feel a connection with certain characters drawing you into the story.

This book is available to buy from www.asda.co.uk for around the £4.00 mark, a real steal for a book of this quality.

ISBN 978-0-7515-4055-0343 pages

For more information visit - www.pollywilliams.co.uk

Thanks for reading x

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A great light read

Right time, right dress, right man?

This is another book which I saw in the supermarket and thought it might be a good read. The book has been given high praise from a few magazines so I decided to try it. I was very pleased with my choice as it was a great read.

The story tells of Stevie Johnson who is 34 years old and is due to marry Jez. She starts to have doubts before the wedding about wanting to marry him and if she wants to spend the rest of her life with him. Her best friend Lara is on hand to talk through her doubts with her. But as she thinks, at 34 she is supposed to be married and having children before it is too late for her. As the wedding approches she goes to stay at her mothers house and meets with her old friend Sam. During this meeting she starts to have her old feeling for him come back and is then even more torn whether she should marry Jez.

Stevie looks at her sister, Poopy, who is married with children and is also expecting another baby and wishes her life was the same.

The week before the wedding is due to take place Jez's father passes away so Stevie bottles her feelings up and goes through with the wedding. The wedding day does not go as planned as Jez starts acting up, Stevie puts this down to his grief over the loss of his father and thinks that once then are on their honeymoon things will sort themself out.

Jez suprises Stevie with a honeymoon in Thailand but she would have preferred a backpacking holiday to one where she gets pampered and to live in luxury which sees it getting off to a bad start!

As the honeymoon progresses and Stevie is finding spending so much time with her new husband is irritating her. Jez comes across a 'damsell in distress' and we then discover that it is Katie Norris who was the girl who took Sam away from Stevie when they were younger. Stevie takes an instant dislike to Katie where as Jez does the opposite and wants to spend all of his time with her.

The book does sidetrack a bit to tell about the relationship with Katie Norris and her boyfirend Seb, Katie is desperate to marry Seb and start having children where as Seb is enjoying his life as it is, working in America and only seeing Katie when he comes back to England. Katie is sure that Seb is going to pop the question whilst they are in Thailand much to her dissapointment.

Katie turns to Jez as a shoulder to cry on much to Stevies annoyance. The honeymoon gets called short for Stevie when she discovers that Poppy has gone into early labour and the baby is not doing very well she decides to go home rather than stay with Jez who she is having serious doubts about.

Whilst on the honeymoon we are told again about Stevies best friend Lara who has moved to New York to start a new job and has met up with Sam who also has started working over there. Stevie introduced them both at her wedding and they arranged to met once Lara had settled in. Lara and Sam start dating which Stevie has mixed emotions about and cant understand why.

When Stevie returns home without Jez she moves to her mothers house for a short time to visit her new nephew and again she bumps into Sam who is also back in England visiting his family.

The story then does progress quite a lot telling about the relationships between all of the characters but I am not going to tell anymore as I do not want to spoil the outcome for everyone but the one thing I will tell you all is that Poppy's premature baby does survive so no tears there!

I foud this book does have a few main characters but the way it has been written makes it very easy to follow and I did not get confussed in any part.

The book was written by Poppy Williams who is also the author of The rise and fall of a yummy mummy, I will personally be looking to buy this book as I think it wilol be just as entertaining as this one.

A brides tale was first published in hardback under the title of 'The Egg Race'. The paperback version which I have was published in 2007 by Sphere.

The book is 343 pages long with everone full of a great read.

This copy cost me £3.99 from my local supermarket which I feel is excellent value. I totally recommed this book to everyone.

If you would like more information about Polly Williams it can be found at www.pollywilliams.com.